Eight amazing Lego facts to really impress your kids

Psst… hey parents. We’ve got the perfect dinner conversation to showcase just how awesome you are to your kids – and it’s all about Lego. Impress children of all ages with these fascinating facts about everyone’s favourite colourful bricks. We even have a video of how Lego is made. And it has robots.

The next time you are stuck in the car on a long drive or are strapped for ideas to discuss around the dinner table, pull out these trivia tidbits about Lego.

1. Lego is made by robots.

That’s right – Lego and robots… in the same sentence. My five-year-old just about fell off his chair in excitement when he heard this one. In a factory in Billund, Denmark, autonomous robots and precise machines make 36,000 Lego pieces per minute. Check out this video to see how it’s done.

2. 5.2 million pieces of Lego are made every hour

An average of 50 billion Lego bricks are produced every year.

3. The Lego name is made from the first two letters of the Danish words Leg Godt

Which means, “Play well.”

4. Lego and Duplo connect.

Lego Duplo bricks are eight times the size of original Lego bricks – yet they both connect.

5. The average person in the world owns 86 Lego bricks.

My children are batting way above average on this one. A lesson in gratitude perhaps? “Eat your dinner – there are people starving around the world.” “Clean up your toys – there are people with only 86 Lego bricks who would love to have these toys.”

6. Laid end to end, the number of Lego bricks sold in 2012 would stretch round the world more than 18 times.

Add to this, 40 billion Lego bricks stacked on top of one another would connect the Earth with the moon.

7. The population of Lego mini-figures is the largest in the world.

The first mini-figure was produced in 1978. Since then more than 4 billion have been made, making it the world’s largest population group. Today there are enough minifigures to wrap around the Earth at least four times.

8. The Lego Group isn’t just about mini bricks.

They are also one of the world’s largest tyre manufacturers. Who knew?